Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King

Ella shook her head. "Even the surviving Saints couldn't do it in large numbers. I could do one at a time, but it would take hours, or even days, depending on the spread rate of the undead curse. We tried from overhead, but they regenerated faster than we could cleanse them."

The Dryad sighed. "I was afraid of that. So, instead, we will work on a battle plan."

A group of Fae and Demons came forward with tables and topographical maps, detailing the areas near the border. On them were marked potential defensive locations, and after they were spread, the assistants began to place markers that represented the troops that they had available, as well as the detected enemy numbers.

The difference was drastic, but the power levels weren't shown by the number of markers on the map. The majority of the horde was only at Rank Two, so they would have a hard time dealing with more powerful defensive magic, but there was a risk that the curse they carried could infect the defenders.

That was what often happened to the Covens when the undead attacked. The initial assault would only inflict a minimal number of casualties, but afterwards, the curse would begin to spread, and there would be chaos in the ranks as the defenders and civilian townsfolk were transformed and rampaged among their fellows.

With a hundred thousand of them in one spot now, the chance that the Undead would begin to infect the living was more a matter of when and not if it would happen. So, the primary goal was to keep the battles and the horde away from the water supplies that flowed from the mountains to the oceans, past the horde and the Free Coven cities in between.

It wasn't well known how the undead curse spread, only that it always did. Any time that they were fought, the curse would infect secondary targets, no matter how good the sanitation measures were.

This time, they had more hope of success, with the Mana Purification ability that could remove curse damage over time and prevent the casting of most curses. If the problem was undead spell casters that they hadn't noticed in the past, then this should solve the problem almost immediately.

But even if it didn't completely prevent it, it should slow the spread, and the nearby towns had already put a Mana Purification barrier in place, using the gifts that Wolfe had passed out upon his return.

"These positions look good, but can you see from one to the other? Any gaps in surveillance can let the enemy sneak through. They won't stay bunched up in a pack, they're nearly mindless and unless they're motivated by the scent of living things, they will wander aimlessly most of the time.

That means that they could take the most unexpected of nearly impassible routes to end up in places that they do not belong." Wolfe reminded the strategists.

The local witches nodded in agreement and pointed to a few more spots on the map.

An older witch spoke up. "Having someone in these spots has also helped with regular monster tides in the past, even though they're not the most strategic of defence points.

The cities almost all have walls these days, but that doesn't mean that they're well suited to taking on an attack.

Though, now that we have guardians in all the towns, it's not so bad. One guardian can deal with a few wandering undead, but the people will still panic about the spread of the plague if one is spotted behind the lines, and that will lead to the burning of fields as a preventative measure, which will destroy all the productivity gains we have made."

The Dryad sighed, and the advisors started to take notes and cross-reference them to the available troop unit counts.

The Free Covens didn't have a standing army, it was just the town guards from the towns near the mountains. They didn't even have a solidly defined border, the maps were just drawn with a rough line that was somewhere past the last towns, and varied depending on who drew the border and when.

"We need to get more troops sent in from Faerie and the Demon Realms. But we're short on Gold. There is no enchanted currency here for us to go by, so paying the residents of the other Realms will be a problem." The Dryad explained.

Anything that they paid the hired guards would have to come out of the coffers of the defenders, and without a good way to rebuild their funding, that would not be sustainable.

The Dryad had plans to sell the magical crops back home for money, but they hadn't had enough time to get an actual defence budget yet. He could try hiring on credit, or raising funds from the other guardians, but that would take time, and with less than a day until the undead arrived, they didn't have enough.

Wolfe cleared his throat to gather everyone's attention.

"Rifles are relatively easy to use. The civilians can figure them out in a matter of hours, with a single training lesson. If we send a few trained troops here, they can teach thousands of them the basics of how to use a rifle and recruit them for the local militia.

It's not the most powerful fighting force on the planet, but with Rank Two spells on the bullets, they can effectively fight back against the Monster Tide. Then the elites with the special weapons can deal with the leaders, and we should be able to keep the enemy at bay.

What we're going to need from the more powerful among you, at least the ones that aren't going to the special teams, is to help build a barrier. With the barrier poles evenly spread, even a few powerful Fae can keep the Undead Horde from breaching your borders for days while the militia works to fight them off.

It will be exhausting work to keep the mana expenditure up, but I am certain that you can do it."

The Myrrh and Sylvan Covens did it every winter against the beast tides, so the Fae and Demons who had chosen Guardian positions in the Free Covens could do it as well, with their vastly larger individual mana base.